Following the example of the US is usually seen as a bad way of doing things in this country - whether it means becoming more litigious, saying 'Have a nice day' or eating in McDonald's.

But one of the biggest areas of Americanisation in the last decade has been our system of financing higher education. Current undergraduates now have to pay for their own maintenance and tuition fees - a source of anxiety to many parents, who got their own degrees for free.

And the load is getting heavier on new graduates. The complete withdrawal of grants means that students graduating next summer are likely to have debts of between £12,000 and £15,000, according to the National Union of Students - a massive hike on the £5,300 average debt for students graduating in 1999, according to research by Barclays bank.

For the class of 2000, debt was reduced because many received grants each year. But most of the class of 2001 will have studied under a new system with no grant so they took out government loans through the Student Loans Company. The maximum loan this year is £3,445 outside London (£4,590 in the capital). Unlike their parents, they are also paying tuition fees of £1,050 a year, with calls from the universities to raise them to as much as £4,000 a year.

But if we follow the US example, our graduates could be leaving university with debts closer to £35,000 - or more if studying medicine, law or business. US universities are free to set their own fees - and many of them charge more than £10,000 a year. Putting a child through college has spawned a huge financial industry in the US. You can even get tips on the web about keeping costs down when the family goes on a two-week trip with young Freddie in the camper van to visit the different universities on offer.

In the UK we are seeing the start of similar moves. Calls from the top universities for more freedom in setting fees is just one part of a new desire for greater liberalisation. Conservative Party proposals to give huge endowments to universities and let them manage their own money is another move in the same direction. If Oxford University - current endowment funds estimated at £1.5 billion - ends up with funds in the order of £10bn (the amount that Harvard sits on), then it is likely to take a more commercial approach both to the setting of fees and to the awarding of scholarships.

A big difference between the countries is that Americans are far more likely to get bursaries and scholarships than Britons. Laura Spence, the would-be medical student rejected by Oxford in controversial circumstances this year, is just starting her Harvard course after winning grants worth £65,000.

Whenever you hear experts expressing their worry about the brain drain, you can expect the argument to go towards giving universities a freer hand in setting fees. US academics earn considerably more than their UK counterparts. The simplest way to pay lecturers higher salaries would be to put up course fees but that would almost certainly lead to even greater graduate debt.

In the US, students and their families are far more likely to see higher education as a commodity. They are unlikely to run up debts of £35,000 by the age of 21 unless they think it worthwhile financially in the long run. This kind of consideration is already becoming more important here. The economics department at Warwick University recently produced a report which shows that a first-class degree is worth, on average, 12 per cent more in likely future earnings than a third and that male law and politics graduates (the best paid) are likely to earn twice as much as female agriculture graduates (the worst paid). Research from the High Fliers recruitment agency suggests a link between university and future pay - with Imperial College (London), Oxford and Cambridge graduates likely to earn a third more than Glasgow and Cardiff alumni.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders sees graduate debt as 'an issue we can't afford to ignore', according to deputy director general Peter Williams. Might graduates postpone buying property so they can pay off their debts? What effect does this have on house prices if the bottom rung of first-time buyers suddenly falls away? Research conducted for the council by analysts London Economics concludes that the effect is likely to be minimal - not least because graduates tend to earn well and become quite accustomed to dealing with debt. But the council will continue to monitor the situation - especially if interest rates rise and the economic climate becomes less buoyant.

Whatever the effect on property prices and ownership all graduates will have to learn to deal with debt.

£13,000 of debt - but Kate's had a ball

Kate Emmanuel graduated in 1998 and still has about £13,000 of debt - but she is happy about it.

During her four-year international manage-ment and French course at the University of Bath, she spent a year in Montreal and then, a few months after graduation, went to New York for several months.

'I have had a brilliant time,' says the 23-year old. 'Some of my friends scrimped and saved throughout university and never took out a loan. But I took out all the loans I could - and I did what I wanted.

'If I wanted to go out for a meal, I did. I didn't live off baked beans. So now I have a big dump of debt to pay off - but most people have a mortgage to pay off. It's just like paying that.'

She was the first person from her family to go to university, encouraged by a careers adviser who was impressed by her results at school.

Although she was one of the last undergraduates to get a grant, she still needed other funds. So she got a free overdraft with the campus branch of Barclays ('they have been brilliant') and, in each of the four years, she drew down her full loan from the Student Loan Company.

Her plan was to maximise her income, rather than cutting the outgoings. In her second year, she worked in a café. In her final year, she worked in a French restaurant in the city. 'It meant that I met all the French people in Bath. I was constantly having conversations in French.'

When she graduated in July 1998, she knew that payback time had arrived. She took two jobs - as an office manager in the day, and a waitress some evenings - to pay off the £3,000 overdraft she had accumulated.

She paid off this by May 1999 when she went to New York, having negotiated another £3,000 loan from Barclays.

Now she is working for an internet service provider in Cardiff. Having started as a PA there, she has expanded her role to include liaison.

She is also preparing to start repaying her student loan from April. Her fairly low level of earnings means that she has not had to repay any so far.

She does not worry about her debts now. When she was at university, however, she did have the occasional sleepless night. But when she went to see her bank and discussed her affairs with them, she learnt how to control the situation.

This seems to be the key to her peace of mind: 'As long as my finances were in control they were fine. I realised that as long as I tightened up in one area, I could survive if I really wanted to pay for something else.'

So now she is on the verge of buying a car - on hire purchase. She does not need to worry about buying a house - because she now lives with her partner in Cardiff and he had already bought a property.

The pension is the next issue. 'It's something I want to get sorted out - even if it's only a small amount.'

She knows that it will take 'quite a few years' to clear these debts, but says: 'It's not daunting.'

Is she typical of her friends? 'Money wasn't something that people talked about much - a lot of people wanted to keep it to themselves. But for some of my friends, it was their parents who took on the extra jobs to see them through education.

'Some just had wealthy parents. Some took on all the debts they could, like me. And some applied for hardship funds.'